Bake Texture

Texture baking API reference. Transfer textures from high-poly to retopologized mesh at up to 8K resolution. Essential for 3D printing painted miniatures.

Bake Texture Transfer

POST

/v1/tools/bake-texture/

Transfer textures from an original textured model onto a retopologized (lower poly) version. This is useful after manual retopology or mesh simplification when you need to preserve the visual appearance of the original on a new, cleaner mesh. The tool automatically aligns both models, generates UVs for the retopo mesh, and bakes the textures using ray casting. The original model must be in GLB or glTF format (with textures). The retopo model can be GLB, OBJ, or FBX. Output is a GLB file with the baked texture embedded. Costs 5 credits per request.

Request

curl -X POST https://api.3daistudio.com/v1/tools/bake-texture/ \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "original_url": "https://example.com/highpoly.glb",
    "retopo_url": "https://example.com/lowpoly.glb",
    "texture_resolution": 4096,
    "output_format": "glb"
  }'

Response

{
  "task_id": "a1b2c3d4-e5f6-7890-abcd-ef1234567890",
  "created_at": "2026-02-25T12:00:00Z"
}

How It Works

The tool imports both models into the same scene, automatically centers and scales the retopo mesh to match the original, generates a fresh UV layout on the retopo mesh using smart UV projection, then bakes the textures from the original onto the retopo mesh. The baked texture is embedded into the output GLB file. The ray distance for baking is calculated adaptively based on model size to handle different scales correctly.

Input Requirements

Both models are required. The original must have textures to transfer and must be in GLB or glTF format. The retopo mesh does not need UVs or textures as they will be generated automatically.

Input	Supported Formats	Requirements
Original (source)	GLB, glTF	Must have textures or materials with color data.
Retopo (target)	GLB, glTF, OBJ, FBX	Clean mesh to receive the baked texture. UVs are generated automatically.

Parameters

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
original_url	string (URL)	Yes	URL of the original textured model (GLB or glTF).
retopo_url	string (URL)	Yes	URL of the retopologized mesh (GLB, OBJ, or FBX).
texture_resolution	integer	No	Resolution of the baked texture in pixels (square): 1024, 2048, 4096, or 8192. Default: 4096. Higher values capture more detail but produce larger files.
output_format	string	No	Output format: "glb". Default: "glb".

Checking Status

GET

/v1/generation-request/<task_id>/status/

Poll this endpoint with the task_id from the submit response. When status is "FINISHED", the results array contains the GLB file with the baked texture embedded. Results expire after 24 hours.

Request

curl https://api.3daistudio.com/v1/generation-request/YOUR_TASK_ID/status/ \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY"

Response

{
  "status": "FINISHED",
  "progress": 100,
  "results": [
    {
      "asset_url": null,
      "asset": "https://storage.3daistudio.com/assets/baked_model.glb",
      "asset_type": "3D_MODEL",
      "thumbnail": null
    }
  ]
}

Processing Times

Texture baking typically takes 50–110 seconds. Higher texture resolutions take longer as more texels need to be baked from the original mesh.